Peace on pension

Published: Wednesday, December 11, 2013 at 08:00 AM.

It’s not exactly Jimmy Carter orchestrating the Camp David Summit agreement between Israel and Egypt, but give state Rep. Jimmy Patronis credit for being a peacemaker between local warring factions.

Let’s just hope the cease-fire lasts.

Patronis has been an intermediary in the dispute between the Bay County Commission and the Bay Health Foundation over county appointments to the board and the future of the Bay Medical Center Sacred Heart Healthy Systems employee pension, which is managed by the foundation.

For the past year the commission and the foundation’s board have butted heads on how hands-on the county should be. The county in recent months had been withholding approving appointees to the board while it sought to seat one of its own — and to secure guarantees taxpayers would not be forced to bail out the pension fund if it happened to go bankrupt.

Last month, commissioners decided to ask the Legislature to create an irrevocable trust for the pension, which would eliminate the county’s responsibility for it.

The foundation has responded that despite having a $15.4 million unfunded liability (predicted to shrink to $12.5 by Jan. 1), the $94 million pension is actuarially sound and in no danger of being unable to fulfill its financial obligations. Board attorney Rob Jackson has insisted that the county is not responsible for the pension liabilities and therefore an irrevocable trust is unnecessary. If there’s any risk, he says, it is so infinitesimal as to be meaningless.

Enter Patronis, who along with the rest of the Bay County legislative delegation — Rep. Marti Coley and Senate President Don Gaetz — agreed to pursue irrevocable trust legislation, but only as a backup plan. Patronis would prefer to settle the dispute through diplomacy.

It’s not exactly Jimmy Carter orchestrating the Camp David Summit agreement between Israel and Egypt, but give state Rep. Jimmy Patronis credit for being a peacemaker between local warring factions.

Let’s just hope the cease-fire lasts.

Patronis has been an intermediary in the dispute between the Bay County Commission and the Bay Health Foundation over county appointments to the board and the future of the Bay Medical Center Sacred Heart Healthy Systems employee pension, which is managed by the foundation.

For the past year the commission and the foundation’s board have butted heads on how hands-on the county should be. The county in recent months had been withholding approving appointees to the board while it sought to seat one of its own — and to secure guarantees taxpayers would not be forced to bail out the pension fund if it happened to go bankrupt.

Last month, commissioners decided to ask the Legislature to create an irrevocable trust for the pension, which would eliminate the county’s responsibility for it.

The foundation has responded that despite having a $15.4 million unfunded liability (predicted to shrink to $12.5 by Jan. 1), the $94 million pension is actuarially sound and in no danger of being unable to fulfill its financial obligations. Board attorney Rob Jackson has insisted that the county is not responsible for the pension liabilities and therefore an irrevocable trust is unnecessary. If there’s any risk, he says, it is so infinitesimal as to be meaningless.

Enter Patronis, who along with the rest of the Bay County legislative delegation — Rep. Marti Coley and Senate President Don Gaetz — agreed to pursue irrevocable trust legislation, but only as a backup plan. Patronis would prefer to settle the dispute through diplomacy.

He made progress on that front this week when the foundation agreed to sit Commissioner George Gainer on its board. Gainer — the only commissioner who opposed Bay Med’s lease with Sacred Heart, turning it into a for-profit hospital — and foundation Chairman Don Connor were conciliatory, and both downplayed the previous conflicts. The board still opposes the irrevocable trust bill, but hopes having Gainer on the board will convince him and the other commissioners that the legislation is not needed.

It’s good to see outward signs of cooperation. Neither Gainer nor the county should be seeking to micromanage the foundation’s business. Their sole interest should be in protecting taxpayers.

Foundation officials are right — the pension fund is actuarially sound; it is no imminent danger. But from the taxpayers’ standpoint, the county has to look long term. Nobody can predict the future, therefore even a minuscule chance that the county might be responsible for the pension liabilities years down the road, after the current officials are long gone, has to be taken into consideration.

The county shouldn’t use that as an opening to do more than cover its bases, and the foundation should respect taxpayer concerns if there is any chance they will be on the hook for millions of dollars. Kudos to Patronis for bringing the two sides together and ending the stalemate. We hope they will find common ground.